Word of Mouth Part 2: A Quick Exercise

(First, if you haven’t read Part 1, read it now. In fact, you really need to start with the post “What is the Single Most Powerful Force in Marketing?” Also – we’ll be picking the winners here very soon

OK, before we get into some real meat here, let’s do a little exercise together.

Step 1: Find a website that is offering a viral marketing tool. Almost any will do.

My Prediction: The copy is probably promising that once you use the tool, you’ll get a flood of visitors to your site that you can’t shut off and that it will keep growing and growing and growing.

Step 2: Go to Alexa.com and type in that URL.

Alexa is a service that estimates web traffic to almost any site.

My Prediction: You will probably see a graph that looks like this. Either that, or you’ll see no real traffic to speak of.

If the tool these guys are offering creates a steady stream of traffic that keeps growing and growing, then …

A. Why aren’t they using it themselves?

… and …

B. If they are, why is their traffic not growing like they promise yours will?

The answer is easy: the real marketing secret of most Internet Marketing gurus is the product launch.

Launches work great. Heck back in the old “Aesop” days (my old company), we used these sames tactics all the time. (Since then guys like Jeff Walker, John Reese, Brad Fallon, Andy Jenkins, Frank Kern and Mike Long have taken these tactics to new levels. Truly impressive.)

The general idea is pretty simple:

Rally the forces of people who own large lists and get them to promote on the same day.

Poof!

Instant surge in traffic. Instant best-seller.

There’s more to it (anticipation, proof, motivation, etc …), but that’s the general idea.

The problem is, launches will bring in a great surge in traffic, but if what is being launched is without substance, no real Word of Mouth will occur.

So, the business model of many IM experts (not the guys I mentioned above, by the way) looks something like this …

They launch a pretty-good product.

The buzz dies down.

Move as many people as you can to your list in the process.

Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat.

No offense to these guys – many of them are close friends of mine and good people. Some of them are bona fide geniuses.

Now, you can make good money like this. Heck, millions even.

But with this model, it’s like pushing a rock up hill. Every time you get to the top you have to push it back up again. (Known as “The Myth of Sisyphus.” The king who was damned to an eternity of rock-up-a-hill pushing. Yikes!)

Who wants to push a rock up a hill at all? Let alone over and over again …

Now, take a look at this graph here:

This is the growth of the stock price of Harley Davidson.

This only shows part of the picture as they were experiencing true Word of Mouth growth for years before they even went public.

Because their stock price is a pretty good reflection of the reality of their sales, they just keep growing.

And the bedrock key to their growth is, without question, genuine organic Word of Mouth Marketing.

What’s the secret?

Well, a great product is part of it, but just that – a part of it.

Since we know there are a great many “amazingly great” products that have failed miserably, there must be something more to it.

There is. Stay tuned closely to this channel over the next few days.